Opinion | How will China handle European disenchantment?
European Commission concerned about state-induced distortions in Chinese economy
There is little doubt Beijing will move to seize each opportunity offered by the US retreat from global governance and international hotspots to expand Chinese influence.
Deng Xiaoping’s low profile doctrine is now history but the extent to which China will take more risks and become a key player in international crisis management remains unclear – and a major question for international politics this year.
China is already taking a more visible profile on Afghanistan, Myanmar and the Israel-Palestine conflict. At a minimum, these recent moves seek to send a signal to the world and to the domestic audience about China’s perception of its new status in world affairs.
In China, Marxist analysts of President Xi Jinping’s work report to the Communist Party’s national congress in October place most emphasis on the new key contradiction in Chinese society, “unbalanced and inadequate development and the people’s ever-growing need for a better life”, to explain what Xi’s “new era”means.
But besides the domestic order, the “new era” outlines a clear vision of a leadership status for China in international politics, a goal stated in black and white in the report. What will follow is a top-down adjustment of foreign policy to that vision. In a speech last month, Foreign Minister Wang Yi raised a new term, “resolving hotspot disputes with Chinese characteristics”. Wang ended his speech with a poetic quote: “with the rising tide and favourable wind, it is time to sail the ship and ride the waves”.